Anti-stigma campaign

Hjärnkoll is a national anti-stigma campaign in Sweden run by 200 "ambassadors", who are people with their own experience of psychosocial health problems. The key activities of the campaign are directed towards media and training for special targeted groups, such as employers, healthcare staff and police.

Hjärnkoll is a national anti-stigma campaign in Sweden run by 200 “ambassadors” - people with their own experience of psychosocial health problems. An initiative of the Swedish Agency for Disability Coordination (Handisam) and the National Collaboration for Mental Health (NSPH), the key activities of the campaign are directed towards media and training for special targeted groups, such as employers, healthcare staff and police. The campaign is run by a large network of people with their own experiences of psychosocial health problems. They are the spokespersons of the campaign. It is not a campaign about persons with psychosocial health problems as they themselves give voice to the campaign. The campaign is part of a government-sponsored scheme to increase quality in the psychiatric care and social services for people with psychosocial health conditions in Sweden.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

The effects of the first two years of the campaign have been evaluated and results shows that it is possible to change negative attitudes and behaviour. For example: Every second person who did not want to have a person with a psychosocial health problem as a neighbour has changed his/her opinion. Every third person who, in 2009, was concerned that people with psychosocial health conditions lived in their neighbourhood is now more positive. Every sixth person who did not want to have a person with a psychosocial health condition as a neighbour has changed his/her opinion. The effect of the Swedish campaign is evaluated by a network of Swedish researchers, Centre for Evidence-based Psychosocial Interventions for people with severe psychosocial health problems (CEPI). http://www.cepi.nu/

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

Sweden. Experiences have been shared with other national anti-stigma campaigns, for example Time to Change in the UK, See Me in Scotland and One of Us in Denmark. The results of the campaign were also discussed at an international conference in Canada.